Albany Herald

ALBANY, Ga. — With colder weather coming in, a coat is something a person cannot be without.

With that in mind, Central Monitoring is teaming with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Southwest Georgia to collect new and gently used coats from the public to distribute free of charge to area children and adults — an effort known as “One Warm Coat.”

The project, held in collaboration with a national endeavor of the same name, collects coats of all sizes — although children’s sizes are most needed — on an annual basis during the fall and winter seasons.

“The program is an easy way for all of us to pass along coats and jackets that we no longer need,” said Central Monitoring Owner and President Judy Randle in a news release. “Our donations of something so simple and so essential may very well turn out to be the best holiday gift received by many people in our community.”

Coats can be taken to any Albany Fire Department station or to Central Monitoring at 522 Pine Ave. From there, Central Monitoring will collect the coats and give them to the Second Harvest Food Bank — the organization responsible for distributing them throughout the area.

Coordinators of the Albany drive say they are continuing to send out collection boxes to area businesses, with nine boxes delivered out on Thursday. There were roughly 10,000 coats collected last year, officials say.

More than 3 million coats have been collected and distributed through One Warm Coat activities in the United States since 1992, information from www.onewarmcoat.org indicates.

This year’s drive will run through Jan. 15. For more information or to request a collection box, officials are encouraging people to call (229) 349-1404.